Wednesday, 14 March 2012

In todays society we have an abundance of tools at our fingertips that allow us to tap into a world of social media.From this social media, can change really happen? Can people really make a difference; a social change?I would have to say that it most definitely can, and it has.

We have tools like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Blogs and YouTube (to name a few) that allows us to connect with people that we probably would not have networked with otherwise.These tools allow us to see what is going on half way around the world. Let us take KONY2012 for example; this was an online infection, or as Gladwell would put it, contagiousness.This online epidemic of a 30 minute video has hit the walls, sites, channels of social media on a global scale.Has this resorted in a social change? Awareness has been opened up for the world, many people who were hidden under a rock of ignorance are now shown what terrors are happening and given a window to activists to make a difference.When a difference is made, how can we not look at this as a social change? It all depends on what the people do with this information, social media has given us a platform to obtain the information and I guess time will tell; if all the people can come together on April 20th, and take a stand maybe there will be a social movement. Either way it opens up the door to take action on social change, it is left for the people to decide.

There are several instances over the years just like this one; when around the world crisis has happened and social media has given people a way to help because knowing is just the first step, and that is what social media does, opens the door.